


Strange Friends

by Higuchimon



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! ARC-V, Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
Genre: Diversity Writing Challenge, GX Month 2020, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:08:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,343
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26707267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Higuchimon/pseuds/Higuchimon
Summary: Rin hates being in Fusion.  She’s stuck up in a tower with hardly anyone to talk to – except the girl who brings her meals.  Saotome Rei is the only person she can talk to, for a very long time.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	Strange Friends

**Title:** Strange Friends  
 **Characters:** Rin, Rei  
 **Chapter:** One|| **Words:** 1,203|| **Total:** 1,203  
 **Genre:** Friendship, Drama|| **Rated:** G  
 **Challenges:** Diversity Writing Challenge, Intrafandom Crossovers, H10, 6+ chapters; GX Month #25, For The Glory of Academia  
 **Notes:** Set in Arc-V universe, but featuring Saotome Rei. Dueling will be vaguely alluded to later. It will involve an alternate ending to Arc-V as well. Rin and Ruri might actually _do things_.  
 **Summary:** Rin hates being in Fusion. She’s stuck up in a tower with hardly anyone to talk to – except the girl who brings her meals. Saotome Rei is the only person she can talk to, for a very long time.

* * *

Rin stared out the window. If she stared out of it long enough, stared at the blue sky with seagulls wheeling in it, and faint sounds that she couldn’t quite identify, perhaps she could convince herself that she was still in Commons. Still in her own world, with Yuugo right behind her, about to do something that would make her want to smack him. 

She could convince herself that everything was normal. But all it would take for that facade to fall was just to look away. To cast one single glance at the room around herself, with thick solemn books on the shelves, a bed more comfortable than any she’d ever known in her life, and a locked door that she couldn’t open. 

She’d tried. Every Commons child knew how to pick locks. But she’d tried to pick that one and nothing happened. 

She tried not to look at it. That door kept her from everyone that she cared about, from the freedom that monster who carried Yuugo’s face had stolen away from her. 

So she stared out the window instead and imagined herself back home. 

So she did for as long as she could, until the door swung open and footsteps sounded. Rin quickly turned, tense and nervous, and blinked to see a girl there, a little younger than she was, in one of those red uniforms that she’d seen while being brought up here. 

The girl carried a tray that she settled on the table near Rin. “This is your dinner,” she said. “Don’t be too long, okay? I have to take it back downstairs and then I have homework to do.” 

The stranger started to turn around. Rin leaped upward, her heart in her throat. “Wait!” The girl looked back at her in confusion and Rin scrambled for the words she needed. “Who are you?” 

She didn’t expect an answer. Hardly anyone had spoken to her since she’d been locked in here anyway. But the girl blinked a few times, tilted her head, and spoke. 

“Saotome Rei. I’m going to bring you your meals while you’re here.” 

Rin’s heart beat a little faster. “Do you know why I’m here? And how long am I going to be here?” 

Rei shrugged. “I don’t know.” A brief pout passed over her face. “I’m just supposed to bring you your food.” 

Rin didn’t want to eat by herself. She didn’t want to _be_ by herself. She gestured quickly to the chair. “You can wait here. Then you don’t have to go all the way down and all the way back up.” 

Rei hesitated only for a second before she settled down into the chair. “Don’t take too long. The kitchen staff’ll get angry if they have to wait.” 

At once Rin started eating. She’d never tasted food like this before. She wished she dared savor it. “Where am I, anyway?” No one had told her anything. She’d managed to overhear a few muttered words but none of them made any sense to her. “Is this somewhere in the City?” 

“No. We’re at Duel Academia.” 

Something of Rin’s confusion must have shown on her face, since Rei continued, “We’re in the Fusion Dimension. You’re from the Synchro Dimension. And still Rin didn’t so much as twitch. “Don’t you know about the different dimensions?” 

Rin slowly shook her head. “We don’t exactly get a lot of schooling in Commons.” Was this something that the people in the City knew about? She wouldn’t put it past them. There were always so many excuses on why people in the Commons couldn’t learn to read and write, let alone anything else. 

Rei settled herself more in the chair. “Well, there are four dimensions. Fusion, Synchro, XYZ, and Standard. Standard’s the weird one; it has all the summon types. But we only use Fusion here.” She raised her head higher at that. “And you use Synchro in yours.” 

Rin didn’t think she’d ever heard of Fusion or XYZ. Standard sounded kind of interesting. 

But not interesting enough that she wanted to go there instead of to go home. “How do I get from here back home?” She wrinkled her nose. “Yuugo’s going to do something stupid without me there.” 

“Who’s Yuugo?” Rei wondered. Then her eyes glittered with more mischief than Rin had seen in a very long time. “Is he your boyfriend?” 

“No!” Rin shook her head, sputtering, trying to make sure that she didn’t choke on her food and not at all sure of how successful she would be. “No, nothing like that. We’re just friends.” Yuugo, her boyfriend? No, nothing of the sort. 

But he was her best friend, probably her only friend, and someone had to keep him from doing extremely stupid things. Assuming he hadn’t already gotten himself arrested or driven off the road into the ocean or blown a tire and not been able to remember where they kept the spares. 

When it came to Yuugo, anything could happen and usually did. Most likely in the noisiest way possible. 

Rei giggled, a sound that Rin wouldn’t have bet could have come from the dour-faced people she’d seen here. For a few seconds she let herself imagine being friends with Rin, taking Rin home with her and showing her what her own place was like. 

Then she took another look at Rei. Rei clearly hadn’t ever missed a meal in her life. Rei looked from where Rin ate to the door, as if worried someone might break through at any moment. Rei wore the same uniform as everyone else here, who saw nothing wrong with keeping Rin locked up here. 

Rei didn’t see anything wrong with keeping Rin locked pp here. 

A large lump of misery choked Rin without warning. She fought it down the best that she could and finished up her meal. She wanted to stretch it out a little more but at the same time, she wanted to be alone again, to scream and cry her rage where no one else would see her. 

As soon as the last bit passed her lips, Rei bounced up and gathered the dishes. “I’ll be back in the morning,” she said, regarding Rin. “I bet you’re bored up here. I would be.” 

“No. I’m fine.” Rin shook her head and looked around. “There are books and a good view.” Every word tasted like a lie. She wondered if Rei could guess. 

If Rei did, she didn’t say anything about it. She just got all of the dishes back on the tray. Once she had it all, she flicked her long tail of hair in farewell and headed out of the room. The door closed and locked behind her – Rin wasn’t sure how it did that, if it did it by itself or if someone she couldn’t see who did it. 

Footsteps faded out of sight and Rin sighed quietly before she moved back to the window and settled down to stare out of it again. Only this time instead of happy memories of home with Yuugo, other thoughts tumbled through her mind. 

Fusion Dimension. Synchro Dimension. She didn’t understand any of it, but one single thought rang true – she wanted to go home. 

* * *

**To Be Continued**

**Notes:** Okay, this one will get updated later as well. I’ve had this in mind for months. It’s going to be interesting!


End file.
